USA professor makes progress in pediatric viral infection
Mobile Register, January 5, 2005 Section: B Page: 2
Author: Monique Curet

Sailen Barik has research published, patents licensed

A University of South Alabama professor had his work published in a leading biomedical journal, and the patents filed on his research were licensed by a pharmaceutical company, the university announced Tuesday.

Sailen Barik, professor of biochemistry at the USA College of Medicine, has created a technique that "has shown promising laboratory results" in preventing and treating respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory viruses, such as parainfluenza, according to a news release.

Respiratory syncytial virus, called RSV, is "the single biggest problem in pediatric infectious medicine," Barik said.

Up to 125,000 infants are hospitalized each year as a result of RSV; between 1 and 2 percent of those infants die, the National Institutes of Health report.

Currently, there is no vaccine against RSV, and the few treatments available are not reliable, Barik said.

The drug created by USA researchers is delivered nasally and blocks the virus from reproducing, he said.

"I think this is the best hope we have against RSV at this point," Barik said.

The molecule that fights RSV was administered to mice with "spectacular results," Barik said.

Mice treated with the drug before they were exposed to the virus were protected from it. The mice who had already been infected with RSV had a "much better prognosis" after the drug was administered, with milder symptoms and faster recovery, Barik said.

The research was published Dec. 26 online in Nature Medicine.

John Maraganore, chief executive officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company that has licensed the patents filed on Barik's research, said Alnylam aims to start clinical testing of the drug by the first half of 2006.

It will be studied as a treatment in those who have already been infected, Maraganore said.

Alnylam is funding the research and development needed to make the product available to patients, Maraganore said. The company has not disclosed specific details of the financing, Maraganore said.

There was an up-front payment associated with the licensing agreement and will be additional payments as progress is made, he said.

Also, the company will pay royalties to USA as the product gets to market and is sold, Maraganore said.

This article reproduced with special permission from the Mobile Register.